Partizan Belgrade
Group H Position: 3rd
Group H Form: L (1-0 Shakhtar Donestk – A)
Partizan Belgrade are making just their second ever appearance in the Champions League proper, their first spell at Europe’s top table since 2003/2004, where the Serbian side failed to win a single one of their three home encounters but will give it their best shot of registering their first in four attempts when they welcome one of Europe’s most technically gifted sides to Stadion FK Partizan in the Serbian capital of Belgrade.
Three-time champions of the Serbian SuperLiga, it’s fair to say that Partizan are one of the competition’s smaller fishes in what is a fairly big pond, but they mustn’t be underestimated in home territory by an Arsenal side which suffered defeat on their one and only previous visit to Serbia, albeit being over 30 years ago. And it’s not as if the Belgrade outfit needed motivation for the win following their miserable start to life in Group H, succumbing to defeat on Match Day 1 in Donestk against Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donestk, although the loss was only by a one goal margin and it wasn’t as though the Serbian outfit were overawed by their unfamiliar Champions League surrounding nor by the level of calibre they were up against.
There shouldn’t by any shortage of confidence inside the Partizan dressing room, with Alexsandar Stanojevic’s side winning all but one of their opening six league encounters, while they have a striker not only of Brazilian dissent but also with the taste for goals. 25 year-old Cleo has barely been at the club for a year but has also played an integral part in the club’s early history, helping Partizan to the Serbian SuperLiga for the third successive season with nine league goals in his first season, while it was in qualifying for this year’s edition of the Champions League where the striker really caught the eye, scoring eight times during three two-legged ties as his goals helped Partizan seal qualification into the main draw for the competition, while his tally for the season currently stands at 11 goals in 13 games.
Arsenal
Group H Position: 1st
Group H Form: W (6-0 Braga – H)
Memories of their 2005/2006 final in Monaco, France still linger around Arsenal FC, with the Gunners having come so close to capturing their first ever UEFA Champions League title before losing 2-1 to Barcelona in the final despite Sol Campbell heading Arsene Wenger’s side into an early lead. Since then Arsenal haven’t quite been up to the standards needed to go all the way, but the last three seasons has seen the Gunners reach at least the quarter-finals thus setting the bar very high for what fans expect from their side this time around.
We feel it’s fair to say that Arsenal were once again handed a more than generous group in terms of who they’ll face, although Arsene Wenger won’t appreciate having to make trips such as this to Serbia. Nevertheless, their opponents on Tuesday night, Partizan Belgrade, post the least threat in the group and so anything less than arriving back home with all the spoils would be a huge disappointment although not quite catastrophic to their plans of qualifying for the knock-out stage of the competition for the eleventh year running.
The Gunners got off to a blistering start in the group with a thumping 6-0 win over last season’s runners-up in the Portuguese Liga Sagres Braga, with Arsenal at their scintillating best as they played their Group H opponents completely off the park. However, the player at the heart of the destruction was Arsenal’s talismanic midfielder Cesc Fabregas, who scored twice and had a hand in almost every goal Arsenal scored that night, but the midfield general sustained a hamstring injury in his very next appearance and isn’t expected to travel to Belgrade for Tuesday’s encounter with the group’s lowest seeded team.
Arsenal are overwhelming favourites to win over in Serbia but the combination of bad omens and a poor away record in recent European campaigns makes the Gunners a pretty lousy and far from conclusive bet. Arsene Wenger seen his troops suffer just their first defeat of the season at the weekend, a shock one at that, as Arsenal crashed to a 3-2 defeat at home to newly promoted West Brom, while just two of their last ten away encounters in Europe haven been converted into winning results. Certainly food for thought!
Match Prediction: Draw – 3.80 StanJames
Arsenal were at their scintilating best when despatching of Braga at The Emirates a fortnight ago, but the player at the heart of their success is a player unlikely to even make the trip to Serbia for Tuesday’s encounter with FK Partizan. The Gunners took on newly promoted West Brom at the weekend in what was their first Premier League fixture without their influential captain, Cesc Fabregas, and Arsenal struggled, struggled to lift their game and were starved of creativity in the centre of the park. Were it not for the silky play of Samir Nasri, who has now scored four goals in his last two competitive starts, Saturday’s scoreline would have been more horrific.
The Serbians are the weakest side in the group, there’s no doubt about that, but they’ll be determined to put in a performance to remember for their 30,000+ supporters inside the stadium in what is their highlight fixture of the group stage. Cleo in particular could be the player to spoil Arsenal’s bid for a perfect start in the competition, a Brazilian with a keen eye for the goal and if Arsenal allow this player to get chances, it could be another embarrassing night for Arsene Wenger & Co.
Soccer-Betting Value Bet: Cleo Anytime Scorer – 4.30 WilliamHill
Match Odds:
Partizan Belgrade – 6.50 SkyBet
Draw – 3.80 StanJames
Arsenal – 1.67 WilliamHill
